1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus and a substrate processing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an example of the substrate processing apparatus, wafers are transported in the order of a load port, a load lock chamber, a transporting chamber, and processing chambers, and are processed in the processing chambers.
The processing chambers are independent spaces each shielded by a gate valve, and in the respective chambers, the wafers are processed independently.
In general, in a configuration in which the processing is performed on a susceptor, one wafer only is processed in one chamber. JP-A-2006-86180 discloses a technology to transport unprocessed wafers to the processing chambers alternately, and replace the processed wafers with unprocessed wafers to be processed next when the processed wafers are returned from the respective processing chambers to a processed wafer substrate supporting member.
The substrate processing apparatus in the related art has a configuration including two load rock chambers in which the wafers are placed in stock, one transporting chamber having a robot that transfers the wafers to the respective chambers, and two processing chambers in which the wafers are processed. According to the configuration of this apparatus, it is difficult to exceed a throughput of 200 pieces per hour. In order to aim a higher throughput, improvement of the throughput is possible simply by adding processing chambers in the outer peripheral portion of the transporting chamber. However, since the transporting robot in the transporting chamber is relatively upsized, and the processing chambers are added, a footprint is inevitably bloated. In addition, when exhaust flow is varied among the processing chambers, variations in ashing rate or in uniformity of film processing are resulted.